Boasberg Contempt Hearing for Noem Found on Appeal to Be ‘Abuse’

A federal appeals court blocked a judge from holding a hearing on whether former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others were in contempt of court by deporting two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members last year.

In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, a panel of judges in Washington halted the hearing from going forward, saying the effort by US District Judge James Boasberg was “a clear abuse of discretion.” Boasberg had attempted to hold the hearings in December before they were paused by the appeals court.

Boasberg has clashed repeatedly with President Donald Trump’s administration over whether the government violated the judge’s order on March 15, 2025, directing the return of planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious El Salvador prison.

The government has argued that the order did not clearly state that the detainees had to be returned to the US. It also contended that the judge has no constitutional authority to compel testimony from current and former government attorneys.

The case stems from the removal of 137 Venezuelans who Trump designated as members of the Tren de Aragua gang under the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act. The administration invoked the war-time power to swiftly deport them to El Salvador. They were later returned to Venezuela and set free.

Trump removed Noem from her position last month after months of controversy and announced he would replace her with Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, who was recently confirmed by the Senate.

Boasberg’s chambers directed question to Lisa Klem, the court’s spokesperson, who declined to comment.

The decision blocking the contempt hearing was written by Judge Neomi Rao, with a concurring opinion by Judge Justin Walker, both Trump appointees. They blasted Boasberg for attempting to “probe high-level executive branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy.”

Boasberg’s order at the center of the dispute “said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody,” Rao wrote.

The dissenting judge, Michelle Childs, who was appointed to the court by former President Joe Biden, said the majority opinion had the effect of “cutting fact-finding at the knees” by declaring the government “to be free from prosecution” as a matter of law “regardless of the underlying facts.”

“Simply put, determining whether there are facts to support probable cause for contempt is not a vindictive or retaliatory exercise,” Childs said. “Nor does fact-finding suggest that the court wishes to intrude in the decision-making of the executive branch.”

The Justice Department urged the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to block Boasberg from questioning one of its lawyers, Drew Ensign, as well as Erez Reuveni, a former department attorney who publicly criticized the administration’s immigration policies. They argued that Boasberg lacks the power to conduct a criminal contempt inquiry.

Reuveni alleged that Emil Bove, a former Justice Department official later appointed by Trump as a federal appeals judge, told government lawyers to ignore court rulings over deportations under the wartime law. Bove denied those claims.

US lawyers also argued that if the contempt hearing were to proceed, Boasberg would improperly allow lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union to cross-examine Ensign and Reuveni. The ACLU filed the original emergency lawsuit to block the flights.

The Justice Department has disputed that Boasberg’s initial, oral order to turn the planes around was a “binding injunction” and argued that the administration complied with his later, written rulings that halted deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

The case is In re: Donald Trump, 25-5452, US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Steve Stroth

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